The story follows a number of oil-men stranded in Alaska after a plane crash, who are forced to survive using little more than their wits, as a pack of gray wolves stalk them amidst mercilessly cold weather.

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John Ottway (Liam Neeson) works in Alaska, killing wolves that threaten an oil drilling team. On his last day on the job, he shoots one. That evening, Ottway writes a letter "without purpose" to his wife, Ana (Anne Openshaw), explaining his plans to commit suicide. He hears a distant wolf howl but he doesn't follow through.

The next day, the plane carrying the team crashes in a blizzard. Ottway awakens to find one of the team, Lewenden (James Badge Dale), mortally wounded. He later dies. Taking charge, Ottway sets the survivors on the task of building a fire. While doing this, he discovers a corpse, and is attacked by the gray wolf feeding on it. After saving Ottway, the group surmises that they are in the wolves' territory. They decide to take turns keeping watch for the predators.

Later, Hernandez (Ben Bray) is killed by two wolves. Ottway suggests they leave the crash site, but Diaz (Frank Grillo) questions his leadership. While searching for the wallets of their deceased colleagues, intending to return them to their families, Diaz finds an emergency wrist watch containing a radio beacon. The group then leaves the site.

While walking, Flannery (Joe Anderson) falls behind, and is killed by wolves. One of them spots a pack of wolves approaching, and the survivors run for the trees, lighting a fire in an attempt to ward off their attackers. The group sets about producing makeshift weaponry. Diaz threatens Ottway with a knife, but is disarmed and ultimately begins regretting his actions. An omega wolf sent by the alpha wolf to test them attacks, but they kill and roast it for food. Diaz beheads the corpse and throws the head back at the pack, a move noted by the group as unwise, as wolves are known to take revenge.

While sitting around the fire, Diaz tells the group of his atheist beliefs, and Talget (Dermot Mulroney) states he believes in God. Ottway states he is also an atheist, but wishes he could believe. Ottway then recites a simple poem written by his father. A blizzard approaches, and the survivors set to maintaining the fire.

The following morning, Burke (Nonso Anozie), who had been suffering from hypoxia, is found dead. The remaining survivors leave the camp, and travel to the edge of a steep canyon. Hendrick (Dallas Roberts) secures a line across, and Diaz and Ottway traverse the canyon. Talget, however, is afraid of heights and his foot becomes caught on the rope, which breaks. He falls to the ground and is dragged away by wolves. Diaz attempts to save Talget but fails and injures his knee.

The three remaining survivors continue and arrive at a river. There, Diaz, humbled by his journey, explains that he would rather die there than return home to a meaningless life, refusing offers of help. They part company, and Ottway and Hendrick continue on together. Further along the river, Ottway and Hendrick are set upon by wolves. In an attempt to flee, Hendrick falls into the river and is trapped beneath the surface. Ottway attempts to save him but Hendrick drowns.

Ottway, cold and wet, continues on alone. Exhausted, he stops walking and begins going through the collected wallets of the others. Ottway then realizes he has stumbled right into the wolves' den. Surrounded by the pack, he looks at his wife's photo in his wallet; it is then revealed that she was dying of a terminal illness. As the alpha wolf approaches him, Ottway arms himself with a knife and shards of glass from small liquor bottles taped to his hand. After reciting his father's poem once more, he lunges at the alpha wolf.

In a brief post-credits scene, the wolf is seen lying injured on the ground and breathing softly, with the back of Ottway's head visible resting on the wolf, while also breathing. It is not made clear whether he has been mortally wounded or if he will survive.

The Grey reunited director Joe Carnahan with producers Ridley Scott and Tony Scott (credited as executive producer) as well as actor Liam Neeson, who collaborated on the 2010 action film The A-Team. The film initially imagined a much-younger lead character and Bradley Cooper, who also worked with Carnahan on The A-Team, was cast in the lead role, but he was eventually replaced by Neeson.[4] Filming began in January 2011 and ended in March. The film was shot in forty days.[5] Though set in Alaska, the film was shot in Smithers, British Columbia, with several scenes being shot at the Smithers Regional Airport.[6] According to Empire magazine, in the climactic scene in which Neeson's character pens a letter to his wife, Carnahan urged Neeson to "channel his grief" over the death of his own wife, Natasha Richardson.[7] Carnahan disclosed, in a Q&A session following an early screening at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, that he had shot an alternative ending (that he'd never intended to use) showing Neeson battling the alpha wolf. It will be included in deleted cuts.[8]

Promotion for The Grey in part targeted Christian groups by issuing a "film companion", which highlighted the spiritual value of the film.[11] Marketing also partnered with The Weather Network to highlight the hazardous filming conditions.[11]Open Road Films incorporated comments tweeted by film critics to promote the film in the third trailer for The Grey. This was the first time tweets from and Twitter handles for professional critics had been used in a film trailer.[12]

The Grey earned very positive reviews from critics with particular praise going to Neeson's performance, as well as Carnahan's direction and the film's atmosphere. The Grey has a "certified fresh" score of 79% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 189 reviews with an average rating of 6.9 out of 10. The critical consensus states "The Grey is an exciting tale of survival, populated with fleshed-out characters and a surprising philosophical agenda."[14] The film also has a score of 64 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 35 critics indicating "generally favourable reviews".[15]

Roger Ebert gave the film 3 and a half stars out of 4, and wrote that the unrelenting harshness of The Grey so affected him that he departed the screening of a different movie on the same day: "It was the first time I've ever walked out of a film because of the previous film. The way I was feeling in my gut, it just wouldn't have been fair to the next film."There's time for some conversation among the men, and this film, directed by Joe Carnahan and written by him and Ian Mackenzie Jeffers, treats them as individuals. They're not simply a group of victims. The Grey advances with pitiless logic. There are more wolves than men. The men have weapons, the wolves have patience, the weather is punishing. I sat regarding the screen with mounting dread. The movie had to have a happy ending, didn't it? If not "happy," then at least a relief in some sense? Sit through the entire credits. There's one more shot still to come. Not that you wouldn't be content without it."[16]

The film also earned a place on A.O. Scott's list of the year's ten best films,[17] and Slate film critic Dana Stevens included it in her runners-up for the year's best movies.[18] Film Critic Richard Roeper also had The Grey in his top 10 best movies of 2012 list, placing it at number 3.[19]

Dissenters' reviews tend to focus on the film's abrupt ending and perceive the emotional and philosophical undertones as unnecessary. Siobhan Synnot of The Scotsman gave the film two stars, commenting that "On the down side, there's a lot of dull pretentious philosophizing about the heartlessness of nature and God. On the up side, you get to see a man punch a wolf in the face."[20] Some reviewers and analysts have described the film as having an atheist theme, due to characters such as John Ottway (Liam Neeson) pleading for divine help but not getting any.[21][22][23]

The Grey opened in North America on January 27 2012 in 3,185 theaters and grossed $19,665,101, with an average of $6,174 per theater and ranking #1 at the box office. The film ultimately earned $51,580,236 domestically and $25,698,095 internationally for a total of $77,278,331, above its $25 million production budget.[24]

On January 19, 2012, British Columbia's The Province featured an article about the movie's crew buying four wolf carcasses from a local trapper, two for props for the film and two wolves for the cast to eat.[6] This angered environmentalists and animal activists, who were already irate that the film depicts wolves in a negative light, specifically at a time when grey wolves had recently been removed from the Endangered Species Act in many western American states.[25][26] In response to the portrayal of wolves in the film, groups including PETA and WildEarth Guardians started drives to boycott the film.[27][28] Open Road responded by placing a fact sheet about the gray wolf on the film's official website, with cooperation from the Sierra Club.[28] Carnahan responded by downplaying the significance of the violent wolves portrayed in the film, instead highlighting the significance of man's internal struggle for survival.[27]